Ben's Blurbs

Things I'll miss...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:53:12 +0200

I’ve been home for almost two weeks now, and while I don’t feel like I’ve experienced “reverse” culture shock, it seems as if my time in South Africa almost never happened. It’s almost as if I’ve re-integrated myself back into my summer-at-home life TOO well. Of course plenty of people have been excited to hear about my adventures and I’ve been just as excited to recount them, but there’s no way I can impart to them the full experience. No picture I show will do justice to the beauty of Table Mountain at sunset. No story I tell them will fully capture our wild spring break travels. Oh well, time to stop moping and start saving up money to go back. With that I present a list in no particular order of everything I’ve missed so far about Cape Town and South Africa.

Kruger National Park
Fat Cactus
Table Mountain
Clifton, Camp’s Bay, Muizenburg
Mini-buses
Free laundry at Forest Hill
Listening to native Xhosa speakers
The Audi A4
Cadbury chocolate
Coconut donuts, curry with roti, and samosas
Marimba and steel drum bands
Weekly swing dancing at Que Pasa
Roxy’s chilli poppers
Bargaining for souvenirs at Green Market Square and the Women’s Craft Market
Lion’s Head on a full moon

We had some good times, you and I, Cape Town. We’ll meet again someday.

Time for another adventure! At the end of April we had a...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:23:36 +0200

Mountain roads along the Garden Route

FYI, this hole is only 27 cm wide

The Swartberg Pass, near Oudtshoorn

The bridge at Knysna where we passed out

WHEEEEEWHATWASITHINKINGEEEEEE

Tsitsikama National Park

Awesome 50's diner

Time for another adventure! At the end of April we had a strangely-structured long weekend: Friday and the following Tuesday we got off school, but still had class on Monday. Whatever. It was the perfect time to do the Garden Route, which is the serene stretch of southern South African coast between Mossel Bay and Port Elizabeth. So on a rainy Thursday afternoon Abby, Allison, Kristen, Emily and I packed our gear into a Corolla (no Audi this time…*tear*) and took off. Due to a late start and the fact that everyone, their mother, and their mother’s poodle were ALSO leaving Cape Town for the long weekend, we didn’t end up getting to Mossel Bay until about midnight. That proved to be a problem when all the hostels and campsites we went to were closed for the night…but we eventually managed to find a campsite that let us in, and somehow the five of us managed to awkwardly squeeze into our tent.

After an early rise and breakfast in town, we were off to our first destination: the Cango Caves, just outside of Oudtshoorn. While Kristen and Emily did the standard cave tour, the rest of us opted to do the “Adventure” tour, which included the opportunity to wiggle our way through some incredibly small crevices, using every part of our body BUT our hands and feet to squirm through. The caves were beautiful and though I came out sweaty and covered in cave grime, I actually really enjoyed exploring the smaller tunnels. Our next stop was Oudtshoorn itself to try and ride some ostriches at the famed ostrich farms. Unfortunately due to the muddy ground, an ostrich virus, and a weight limit, we had to forgo looking like fools and instead headed up towards the Caves again to drive though the Swartberg Pass, a gravel-paved, narrow, slightly treacherous road that winds up through a mountain range and back down again. The magnificent views of the surrounding country (plus the chance to climb on some rocks that we probably weren’t supposed to climb) instantly made us forget our ostrich-related woes. We had originally planned on staying at a campsite in George (a “boring” town according to the guidebook), but of course we didn’t bring the address of the campsite… No matter, we’ll just stop by a hotel and ask. The gentleman I spoke with in the hotel obviously wanted us to stay at his hotel, going so far as to drop his original price and show me around the room he was offering. I politely continued to decline, as we were trying to be as budget-conscious as possible, but lo and behold, at the last minute he called his manager and offered us the room for 350 rand. That’s less than $10 per person per night for what we later decided was definitely the honeymoon suite. Naturally, we took the offer, and had the greatest night ever sleeping on comfortable beds.

The next morning following a breakfast of peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, we left George and drove to Wilderness, which, as you might expect, is pretty much a bunch of wilderness. We drove up some hills to see the “Map of Africa”, which is a neat grouping of hills and rivers that look like the African continent when seen from the right angle. We then took some back roads on our way to Knysna, and I should point out that for most of our trip it was hard to believe we were still in Africa. The scenery was so lush and varied that at times it felt like we were driving along a northern California coast or a thick Oregon forest—the spectacular views alone are worth doing the Garden Route. We arrived in Knysna late in the morning and decided to explore the Knysna “Heads”, the giant cliffs on either side of the small entrance to the lagoon where the town lies. After climbing around the sea-level part of the cliffs, we drove to the top where we spotted a rocky beach that looked like a perfect spot for lunch. After stuffing ourselves with peanut butter, nutella, jam, oreos, and apples, we all then proceeded to pass out for a couple hours on a wooden bridge. Man that was a nice nap. After setting up camp we headed into town for dinner, expecting to find a variety of options. There was a pretty big gay pride festival going on that weekend so we were surprised by the lack of tourists and open restaurants but eventually found a pretty good Thai place. That night as we struggled yet again to fit ourselves in the tent we seriously missed those hotel beds in George…

Our last day on the Garden Route was one I was particularly looking forward to and dreading at the same time: it was bungee-jumping day for Abby and I. After leaving Knysna and stopping in Plettenberg Bay for breakfast (a beautiful beach town I wish we had more time to explore), we reached the infamous Bloukrans Bridge, home of the world’s longest bungee jump. I got nervous just watching people jump off the bridge from a distance, but I swallowed my nerves and along with about 15 other brave souls, Abby and I walked across a super sketchy metal mesh catwalk to the jumping platform. We were almost the last ones to jump, but the party music they were blasting and the funky dance moves of the operators kept us calm until the big moment. The five seconds of free fall before the cord slowed my descent were the most exhilarating and terrifying five seconds of my life…but I would totally do it again. Once you jump, the loud, upbeat music fades away instantly and it’s all of a sudden serene and peaceful as you awkwardly hang upside down, with nothing to hear or see except the beautiful forests, rivers, and hills surrounding the bridge. I’m pretty sure the adrenaline high lasted until the end of the day. After Bloukrans we visited the entrance to Tsitsikama National Park, where we played on suspension bridges, relaxed at rocky beaches, got up close and personal with some deer, and watched massive waves pound the rugged coast. When we reached our final destination that night, a quirky backpackers’ called Dijembe, we unanimously decided that we had had enough tent time and splurged to upgrade from a campsite to a dorm room. Then perhaps the strangest moment of the whole trip was dinner, at a random 50’s style diner, complete with vintage cars and posters of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and an oldies-playing jukebox machine and a HUGE menu of classic American meals. Seriously, that was some of the best apple pie I’ve had in a while. Totally satiated and still unsure if we were in Africa or not, we passed out in our room, ready to drive back to Cape Town the next morning, where, of course, it was still raining.

A few select pictures are above; the rest can be found here.

I totally just aced my Xhosa oral exam a couple days ago. I...

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:39:41 +0200

I totally just aced my Xhosa oral exam a couple days ago. I aced it so hard I wish I could have talked with the examiners for longer. Here’s a great music video of a white boy singing in Xhosa. Lyrics below. Now I just have to find someone in California I can speak with.

INTRO: Mamelani - Listen up y’all!

CHORUS:
Ndisafunda isiXhosa (Im still learning Xhosa)
Ndithetha kancinci. (I speak a little only)
So Khawuzekelele (So Please talk slowly)
xa uthetha nami (when you speak with me) X 2

VERSE 1:
Ndithetha kancinci kuba ndingumlungu*
I talk a little xhosa because I’m a white ou.
Ngikhuluma kancane kuba ndingumlungu
I talk a little zulu because I’m a white ou.
Andikwazi ukujiva kuba ndingumlungu
I don’t know how to dance because I’m a white ou.
Andikwazi ukucula kuba ndingumlungu
I don’t know how to sing because I’m a white ou.

REPEAT CHORUS

VERSE 2:
Andithathi iteksi x2 kuba ndingumlungu
I don’t take taxis because I’m a white ou.
Ndiqhuba Mercedes x2 kuba ndingumlungu
I drive a Mercedes because I’m a white ou.
Andikwazi ukushela kuba ndingumlungu
I don’t pick up girls because I’m a white ou.
Ndithanda ukukempa kuba ndingumlungu
I love to camp because I’m a white ou.
Ndinxiba ishortsi kuba ndingumlungu
I wear shorts because I’m a white ou.

REPEAT CHORUS

VERSE 3:
Andiqondi, andikuva
I don’t understand, I don’t get you.

REPEAT CHORUS X2

Ewe - Yes in Xhosa
Yebo - Yes in Zulu
Hayibo - gosh!
Eita - Yo (slang)!

Makhosi - The Lords, the Chiefs, the Kings and Queens, the Ancestors. Makhosi!

“Sorry, ndingumlungu mna” Sorry, I’m a whitey mos.

The Great African Road Trip, Part 2

Sun, 06 May 2012 23:35:39 +0200

Part 1 ended with Ashley, Caitlin, Laura, Nadia and I passing out at our campsite at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, after a long day of nonstop traveling. But there’s no time to lose! After a short nap and some PB & N (peanut butter and nutella) sandwiches for lunch, we head off to see the falls. To preface, I didn’t even know Victoria Falls existed until I got to Cape Town and other Americans started talking about it as a popular Spring Break destination. Even after hearing all the hype, I was feeling kind of indifferent—I was excited to go, but I had seen some pretty fantastic waterfalls in Veracruz. Well, it turns out Victoria Falls was voted one of the natural wonders of the world for good reason. This waterfall is MASSIVE: over 350 feet high and over a mile wide. Its native name is Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning “Smoke that Thunders”, and it’s easy to see why—so much water falls into the gorge that a giant plume of mist can be seen from miles away. As we walk along most of the length of the waterfall we get soaked just from the spray being thrown up by the force of the falls. On top of that, there are double rainbows everywhere. We couldn’t have chosen a more perfect day to experience Victoria Falls, and as we return to our tent that evening we go to sleep satisfied (albeit slightly cramped).

The next morning we wake up early in order to go on an elephant back safari. We get lucky and have all four elephants to ourselves—Caitlin and Ashley ride the biggest one together, and the rest of us get our own elephant and guide. It’s amazing to be so close to these enormous creatures, and we basically just ride around through the bush for an hour as the sun rises. After feeding and posing for pictures with the elephants, we head back to our campsite for lunch and (another) nap. We then split up for the afternoon: Ashley and Caitlin do the “adrenalin package” which includes a zip line, “flying fox” (like a zip line but on your stomach), and gorge swing; Nadia and Laura do just the zip line, and I go on a lion walk. As much as I love zip lines (and after seeing pictures of Ashley and Caitlin, I really wanted to do the gorge swing), I figured I should take advantage of the fact that there are so many opportunities to encounter wildlife in Africa. The organization that runs the lion walks has a 4-stage process that takes lions bred in captivity and helps them become accustomed to the wild so they can be released without any dependence on humans. The first stage is just to help young lion cubs become used to walking around the bush, so they have tourists and volunteers accompany them. Along with a small group of other tourists, I get to walk around with two 8-month old lion cubs, a brother and sister. They act like any other young kittens, running and playing and fighting, with the small difference that these kittens can eat my face off. It’s almost surreal being able to pet and scratch the bellies of these soon-to-be-kings of the jungle. By the time I’m done playing with African predators, everyone else is on their way back from a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river not too far away from the falls. After swapping stories we again fall asleep relatively early, wishing we could spend more time at Victoria Falls.

Another early morning comes as we pack everything up and grab a taxi back to the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. As we walk across the border, we reach an unexpected roadblock: a troop of baboons and a warthog family are just chilling on the road. The same road we need to cross. Great. As we huddle together and head towards them, they don’t bother us, but they don’t exactly run away either…they just make room for us to walk along the road and stare at us as we go by. A couple baboons follow us from a distance for a moment, but they’re soon out of sight and we proceed to the lodge where we left our car. Never has there been a bigger collective sigh of relief than the moment we walk through the lodge gates and see our beautiful Audi sitting right where we left it (through as we talk to the lodge owner, we discover that an elephant got dangerously close to trampling the car one night and had to be chased away with BB guns). And we’re off!

Another uneventful day and night of driving await us as we set our sights on Kruger National Park…or so we think. Maybe an hour after leaving Kasane, the Botswana border town, just enough time for us to get out into the middle of nowhere, Laura is driving and the rest of us are starting to doze off. This is a pretty pothole-ridden road, and we had been pretty good about avoiding potholes previously, but all of a sudden a giant pothole the width of the lane looms ahead and we hit it head on, going over 70 mi/hr. As we all jolt awake we can instantly tell something is wrong and we pull over. Sure enough, the front tire is popped. This is not good. Ashley takes over, having been the only one of us who has replaced a tire before (making me feel pretty un-masculine). However, the front tire seems to be quite firmly stuck onto the car and is not coming off. We’re not sure if it’s just rusted onto the axle or if we did something wrong removing the bolts, so after we take turns trying to pull the tire off in vain, we flag down a man who has a little hammer he uses to tap the wheel off. Thank you stranger! Ok, so now we have the spare tire on but we need to find somewhere to buy a new tire—there’s no way we can complete our trip on a spare. It would also be nice to get as good a tire as we can so that Hertz doesn’t notice that they gave us an Audi with 4 nice tires and we bring them back an Audi with 3 nice ones and a crappy one. And while the nearest town is back towards Zimbabwe, it’s way too small to have a decent tire shop…our best bet is Francistown, which is over 200 miles away. So at the 50 mi/hr speed limit the spare has…well, it’s going to be a long day.

We thankfully make it to Francistown right before the shops start closing for the evening and get a new tire. With that behind us, we continue our trek through the night. Man were we happy to cross the border back into South Africa—no more potholes, nonfunctioning credit cards, or cows in the middle of the road at night. 26 hours after leaving Victoria Falls, we arrive at the gates to Kruger National Park. Entering the park felt like crossing some kind of magical border: within five minutes of driving though the gate, we see hyenas, giraffes, elephants, impala, and baboons. And they all seem to take no mind that we’re driving through their home—we can practically touch all of these wild animals, they were so close. When we get to our rest camp we have a ton of time to kill before our sunset safari drive. Our rest camp, Skukuza, is one of the largest in Kruger, and the patio outside the restaurant overlooks a river meandering through the bush. It was nice to just relax for a while, take a nap, eat lunch, write down our adventures up to that point, and enjoy the beauty of Kruger. A couple of hours before sunset we get onto a large safari truck with about 15 other people and start driving around looking for wildlife. Over the next couple of hours we see (more) elephants, impala, giraffes, warthogs, snakes, rabbits (they were cute), and a rhino! Although the sunset was beautiful, once it got dark it was hard to find much else. I think our first day at Kruger left a great impression on all of us, and we couldn’t wait for our all-day private safari the next day. Our goal was to see all of the Big 5: elephant, rhino, leopard, lion, and water buffalo, and so we eagerly wake up early the next morning (there was a lot of waking up early on this trip…) to meet our personal safari guide, Vusi. It’s just the five of us in a small safari vehicle, and between 6 in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon, we see an INCREDIBLE amount of wildlife just driving around southern Kruger. I have to start writing down all the animals we see because there’s no way I’m going to remember all of them: crocodiles, elephants, baboons, impala, cape vultures, kudu, klipspringers, dwarf mongoose, turtles, lions, leopard, water buffalo, vervet monkeys (more on those later), brown snake eagles, goliath herons, zebras, and giraffes. Wow. No wonder Kruger has the reputation that it does.

Just as an aside about these vervet monkeys…they’re pretty sneaky. While we were eating breakfast at a rest stop during our day-long safari, a monkey ran down a tree, grabbed Nadia’s sandwich, and ran back up. It happened so fast we hardly even realized what had happened. It gets better though: at the same rest stop, this time for lunch, a couple more monkeys basically attacked Nadia for no reason. Pretty sure she’s scarred for life now.

That evening we drive to Pretoriuskop rest camp for our final night of camping (spotting a cheetah along the way!). Although it’s not necessary, we wake up early yet again the next morning to try and spot some more wildlife as we leave Kruger, with pleasant results: water buffalo and a family of rhinos alongside the road. From Kruger it’s about a 5 hour drive back to Johannesburg, where we will stay the night before flying back to Cape Town the next morning. The drive itself is beautiful—at times it looks so much like northern and central California that I have a hard time believing we’re still in Africa. Jo’burg, on the other hand, not so pretty. Admittedly, we don’t exactly have time to explore the city, but what we see doesn’t impress us much (except for Ashley’s friend Marc’s high school, which basically looks like Hogwarts). We stay in a backpacker’s hostel pretty close to the airport, in some beds that sag so much they basically force you to sleep in the fetal position—but beds are beds, and after a week of camping we couldn’t help but pass out as soon as we lay our heads down.

The next morning as we prepare for our flight, we’re sad that we will have to go back to school in a few days, but at the same time we are incredibly happy to get back to Cape Town. After a week away, it honestly feels like I’m going home. The only regret is having to return the Audi…it’s been so good to us *tear*. So a couple hours later, the Great African Road Trip ends where it started: at Cape Town International Airport in the pouring rain. Victoria Falls, check. Big 5, check. Successfully drive on the left side of the road, check. Spend less money and have just as much fun as a guided tour, check. Not bad for a week-long road trip.

Again, pictures from The Great African Road Trip can be found here, but I’ll post some of the best ones soon.

The Great African Road Trip, Part 1

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:55:32 +0200

Epic, adventurous, and crazy are all good adjectives to describe my one-week-long road trip through several southern African countries.

Spring Break, Fall Break, Whatever-you-want-to-call-it Break, the point is I had a week off from school and I wanted to TRAVEL! I had originally looked at some guided tours that started in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (one of the natural wonders of the world) and ended at Kruger National Park in South Africa, with a few sightseeing detours along the way. Unfortunately the costs added up to be way more than I wanted to spend so I started looking for alternative plans. I found a few fellow adventurers who were in the same boat I was, and SHAZAM a road trip was planned. Caitlin, Ashley, Laura, Nadia and I would simply fly to Johannesburg, rent a car, and drive through South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe to get to Victoria Falls, then drive all the way back down to Kruger. Easy!

The day finally came, and we eagerly woke up early one Saturday morning to begin our journey. Admittedly we hadn’t planned every single detail of our itinerary, but that’s what makes road trips fun, right? Right??? We fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg, where right off the bat we’re faced with a frustrating bank lady who won’t let us exchange rand (South African money) to pula (Botswana money) and U.S. dollars (used in Zimbabwe). Whatever. We’ll just deal with that hurdle when we get there. We proceed to pick up our rental car from Hertz, where we are politely but very sternly informed that we cannot take the car into Zimbabwe, only through Botswana—in other words, we have to find some other way to get to Victoria Falls. Whatever. Another minor obstacle to be dealt with later. On the plus side, we got upgraded to an Audi A4 for free. I really don’t know what the heck they were thinking, giving a luxury car to a bunch of young Americans to drive across Africa, but hey, no complaints here.

I start off driving for the first leg of our trip, and while it’s pretty weird driving on the left side of the road, I DON’T CARE BECAUSE I’M DRIVING AN AUDI. We drive for a few hours before stopping in a small town called Polokwane for lunch and to buy food supplies (peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, yum). Caitlin takes the wheel, but unfortunately our GPS takes on a weird detour on some pothole-strewn side roads. A couple hours and one dead-or-at-least-seriously-maimed bird later, we’re back on track and arrive at the South Africa/Botswana border. As we exchange money at the most sketchy-looking shack ever right before the border, little do we realize exactly how little we know about crossing borders.

We drive up, a guard tells us to park and fill out a form, and I fill it out and bring it back to the counter with my passport and vehicle registration. We then proceed to the next point where another guard checks our vehicle. Or tries to check it at least, because we can’t figure out how to pop the hood. Seriously, it took us 10 minutes to figure it out. He then tells us we’re missing a stamp and to go back to the immigration counter to get it. We get the stamp, he waves us through, and we sit waiting for half an hour behind a giant trailer truck before finally crossing through to the Botswana side. As we pass through the Botswana gate, another guard confiscates our bananas and informs us that we also have to go through immigration and customs on the Botswana side. Really? Did you have to take the bananas?

Finally we’re through! It’s getting dark, but we decide to just drive through the night to make it to northern Botswana and the Zimbabwe border first thing in the morning. Our next obstacle: cows and donkeys, sleeping and awake, standing and strolling across the road in the dark. Thanks to Ashley’s terrific driving skills, we manage to avoid any accidents; however I’m pretty sure our hearts stopped every time a ghostly cow suddenly appeared in front of us. As we pass through Francistown and gas up the car around 10:30 at night, we brace ourselves: almost 200 miles of road lie between us and our destination, with basically zero civilization along the way. It’s going to be a long night. Although we see signs at various points warning us to watch for elephants and crocodiles, the only animal we encounter during that late night stretch is a baby deer of some sort. Which we promptly run over. (Accidentally, I swear!) Oh and we also saw what was either a Patronus charm or a kudu, freakishly ghostified by our headlights. I’m still leaning towards Patronus. It’s a long drive through the night, and we finally reach Chobe National Park early in the morning.

Our first surprise of the day as the sun is rising over the Botswana forests is ELEPHANTS! You know, nonchalantly crossing the road in front of us. No big deal. As tired as we all are, everyone starts to wake up as literally every 10 minutes we slow down to let elephants cross the road. Giraffes, baboons, warthogs, and vultures are added to the list as we drive around the small border towns of Kasane and Kazungula, looking for a safe place to keep the car while we cross into Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls for a couple of days. After trying the border station and the local police station, we finally find a small gated motel-like lodge that promises to keep the car safe. We wave goodbye to our Audi and WALK across the Botswana/Zimbabwe border, catching a taxi on the other side that takes us directly to Victoria Falls, where we check in to our rest camp and promptly take a nap at 9 in the morning, having travelled basically nonstop for over 24 hours.

Since this is getting a little long, I’ll stop here and post part 2 a little later. Pictures from The Great African Road Trip can be found here.

Things I learned over Spring Break

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:54:10 +0200

An Audi A4 may not seem like an ideal safari vehicle…but it totally is.
Driving on the left side of the road is easier than I thought.
Everything they say about potholes being dangerous…it’s all true.
Learned how to change a tire.
Crossing sketchy African borders without knowing ANYTHING about the process is the best.
I lied. Crossing sketchy African borders ON FOOT is the best.
Baboons can be up to 3 times as strong as humans.*
Warthog mothers can be VERY aggressive.*
Everything seems so much more expensive when the price is in dollars.
Peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches are the most delicious cheap road trip food ever.
I want a pet lion.
I want a pet elephant.
I do not want a pet baboon. They steal your lunch.
I want an Audi.
Cape Town > Johannesburg.

*Note: these facts were conveniently learned the day after nonchalantly walking through said sketchy African border through a pack of wild baboons and warthog mothers and babies.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday in...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:57:20 +0200

Birthday dinner table #1

Birthday dinner table #2

Cheese!

Honey!

CHOCOLATE!

Perfect representation of "Africa time"

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday in Cape Town! On Friday night about 20 friends and I went out to dinner at the Royale Eatery, a famous burger restaurant in downtown Cape Town with a quirky (but fun) decor. I had the “Hawaiian Piggy”, a thick burger with guacamole, bacon, and pineapple, but I’ll definitely be going back to try the other 49 burgers they offer… It was really great just to be surrounded by many of the good friends I’ve made since being here. The next morning I went with a couple of friends to the Old Biscuit Mill, a kind of artisan-food market surrounded by a few specialty gift shops. This place is dangerous: surrounded by so much fresh, delicious food, I have to make sure I only bring a little bit of cash so that I don’t blow my entire budget on crepes, bagels, sweets, bread, honey, etc. Man. I’m getting hungry just looking at these pictures.

Cookies

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:24:00 +0100

Chelsea, Nadia, and Jenessa helped me make some no-bake cookies. Unfortunately, they had to leave before the cookies were ready. This is their conversation on the way back to the dorms that night:

Chelsea: Do you think Ben is still awake? I want some cookies.
Nadia: I don't know. Maybe.
Chelsea: Call him.
Nadia: No, you call him! I don't want to wake him up
Chelsea: Nooo you call him. its only midnight, hes not a baby.
Nadia: You call him.
Chelsea: You won't go to Joburg with me this weekend! you call him!
Nadia: Don't try to guilt me into calling him.
Chelsea: Jenessa, you call him.
Jenessa: Wait, what? Why me? He doesn't even have my phone number, it would be unknown.
Chelsea: Nose goes.
Nadia: I'm not calling him, I feel bad.
Chelsea: Never mind, I'm hungry. I'm going to make pasta
Jenessa: You guys suck!

Intro to South Africa, Part 2

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:23:00 +0100

DRUMS. That will forever be one of my memories of Orientation Week, or O-Week, at the University of Cape Town (it was actually more like O-weeks, but whatever). The very first activity UCT put on for us Semester Study Abroad students was a drum workshop. These guys were good enough to somehow get almost 600 students with drums to actually sound like we knew what we were doing.

The other fun part of O-Week was the few days that all the student clubs (called societies here). Like most universities, UCT has a diverse range of social, religious, sporty, cultural, and political clubs, ranging from the Wine and Cultural Society to the Cape Legion of Adventurers and War Gamers to a Capoeira club. The best part is that UCT pays the subscription fees for up to three societies for study abroad students, so I’m going to join Engineers Without Borders, the Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society, and fencing.

Unfortunately, O-Week is also when everyone registers for classes, and several factors combine to make registration a frustratingly painful process. First, the entire process is not electronic—it is all paper registration, meaning you have to get a form, get it signed by the right people, take it to another person to get another form which you will then have to take somewhere else, etc., etc. While this has the useful side effect of familiarizing students with UCT’s campus, it seems like a pretty inefficient system to a lot of us who are coming from schools where everything is done online. The second frustration involved specifically with the Faculty (or department) of Engineering is that they don’t publish the timetables of the classes until a couple days before our registration date. The resulting chaos that ensued after I found out that 3 of the 5 classes I had originally planned on taking were at the same time was not pretty to say the least. I finally got everything sorted out though, and am taking Mechanics of Solids, Dynamics, an introductory astronomy class, and Xhosa (an African language, more on that in the future).

As much fun as it was to have a 3-week-long vacation in Cape Town, I have to say I’m actually excited for school! I’m ready to finally do what I came here to do—learn! My engineering classes will definitely not be easy (especially with the finals counting for 60-75% of my final grade…) but with astronomy and Xhosa I think everything will balance out. TEACH ME, UCT.

Pictures corresponding to the post below! Be sure to scroll...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:05:00 +0100

On the cable car up to Table Mountain.

The 12 Apostles mountains.

The "tablecloth" of clouds on Table Mt.

Beach! Oh, the beaches here are so nice!

PENGUINS, PENGUINS AND MORE PENGUINS!

Cape Point in the distance.

Pictures corresponding to the post below! Be sure to scroll through them all and click to see them full size!

Intro to South Africa, Part 1

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:38:25 +0100

I have arrived in the Mother City! Actually, I arrived in Cape Town over two weeks ago, but due to various reasons (namely, the fact that this blog didn’t exist until several days ago), I am only now just beginning to record everything that’s been going through my mind.

I was definitely not looking forward to the 30 hours of traveling it was going to take to get from Granada, Spain, to Cape Town, but I have to commend Quatar Airways: surprisingly decent airplane food, comfortable seats, and, most importantly, each plane had about a bazillion bathrooms on board. I finally landed at Cape Town just in time to see the sun set over the “tablecloth” of clouds rolling over Table Mountain.

Cape Town is sort of like Northern California on steroids. Lots of vineyards, giant mountains, dramatic sunsets, pristine beaches, and enormous botanical gardens and parks all combine to make this one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Almost 200 students from all over the U.S. came to study in Cape Town through CIEE, the third-party organization that makes sure our home schools and the University of Cape Town play nice together. Our first week here was CIEE orientation, meant to familiarize us with UCT and Cape Town. As UCT is located on the side of a freaking MOUNTAIN, the campus is practically vertical, with hundreds (if not thousands) of steps separating the lowest building from the highest, which we found out the hard way during an Amazing Race-style scavenger hunt. We got to explore central Cape Town as well as visit several townships nearby, and of course we had a couple braais (BBQs). The highlight of that week was definitely taking the cable car up to the very top of Table Mountain to watch the sun set and have dinner (ostrich burger!) at the restaurant on top of the mountain. Pictures (of which I took a lot) don’t even come close to showing how stunning the city, bay, and mountain range are. I AM OFFICIALLY IN THE COOLEST CITY EVER.

A bus tour of the Cape Peninsula ended our CIEE orientation and kicked off the next week of UCT orientation. As we drove around the beautiful cape coast we got to meet some of the other 600 study abroad students, as well as see wild ostriches, baboons, whales, and PENGUINS! The scenery was stunning, the animals were incredible, and the very last leg of the tour was a hike out to Cape Point, the most south-western point of the African continent. Yes, life is good. Stay tuned for pictures and more about UCT O-week!

Finally, a few photos from Granada, Spain! See previous post...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:50:00 +0100

Tapas bar! Best invention ever.

Detail inside the Alhambra palace

Part of the Alhambra

Giant gold-plated organ!

Granada Cathedral

Gypsy cave-homes!

Finally, a few photos from Granada, Spain! See previous post for some explanations.

Notes on Spain

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:41:00 +0100

Yes, yes, I know I said I was going to write about South Africa, and I will! But I was lucky enough to spend 5 days in Granada with my friend Andrea before arriving in Cape Town. So without further ado, here are my completely biased, totally subjective impressions of Spain, based on less than a week spent in a college town.

Completely Biased, Totally Subjective Impressions of Spain:

Tapas are the best thing ever.

Spaniards like their ham super salty (it’s delicious!).

When I retire I’m going to live in an Arabic castle on a hill á la Alhambra.

Granada fit every preconceived idea I had about European cities: cobblestone streets, tiny cars, narrow alleyways, awesome ancient architecture, etc…

Everyone smokes.

Mexicans are way friendlier than Spaniards.

Spain Spanish is funny. It automatically makes you sound pretentious.

Orange Fanta in Spain is the second best thing ever. It actually tastes like oranges!

If for some reason I am not able to obtain an Arabic castle in which to retire, I will live in a hillside cave-house like the gypsies in Granada.

Now for a few explanations. Tapas are sort of like appetizer dishes, and can range from a small croissant sandwich to a burger with fries. Apparently they are abundant throughout Spain and the rest of Europe, but the cool thing about Granada is that tapas are FREE when you buy a drink! Of course, that means drinks are slightly more expensive than other places, but you can still find great deals. It’s really fun to go to a tapas bar, have an orange Fanta and sandwich, then go to a Moroccan café for another drink and a crepe, and finish the night with more orange Fanta and beef kabobs at an oriental café, and realize it all cost less than 6 Euros!!

I’d also just like to point out that the architecture of old European buildings is amazing. During my time in Granada I got to tour the Alhambra, a castle on a hill overlooking the city. It’s got a lot of Arabic-influenced design and the detail throughout the palace is incredible. I also got to go inside a massive Catholic cathedral in downtown Granada which also kind of blew my mind with how intricate everything is. A special thanks to Andrea for showing me around this beautiful city and letting me crash on her couch! Pictures to come soon, followed by posts about SOUTH AFRICA!

In the beginning...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:14:00 +0100

I am a terrible journal-keeper, but knowing I was about to have some crazy adventures in South Africa, I wanted to do something just to help me remember and record the people I meet and the places I go. So I decided to try out one of these fancy, newfangled “blogs” and see how far I can go with this. I’m not planning on writing about every single thing that happens to me on the other side of the world; instead this will be a place where I can tell the occasional funny anecdote, explain some cultural aspect of South Africa, or share the story behind a photo or video I took. Most of the pictures I take will go on Facebook, but I’m hoping this blog will make it easier to share more in-depth details about this fantastic place. Cheers! (Hint: you’re supposed to read that last word in a sort of British/Australian accent, which is kind-of-but-not-really like the South African accent.)